New website offers TB vaccination info for more than 180 countries

In time for World TB Day on March 24, researchers from McGill University and the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Center launched the BCG World Atlas: a searchable website that offers free detailed information on current and past TB vaccination policies and practices for more than 180 countries. A paper about the BCG World Atlas is available in the March edition of the journal PLoS Medicine.

“The Atlas is designed to be a useful resource for clinicians, policymakers and researchers alike,” stated co-author Dr. Madhukar Pai in a press release. “It has important implications on diagnosing and treating TB and on the research that’s being done on developing a new TB vaccine.” Dr. Pai is an assistant professor at McGill’s Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health and a researcher in the Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit at the Montreal Chest Institute.

The data for the project, which began in 2007, was assembled through published papers, reports, respondent-completed questionnaires, government policy documents, and data available from the World Health Organization Vaccine Preventable Diseases Monitoring System.